Kartesia has priced its first collateralised loan obligation (CLO), Kartesia CLO I, at €459m (£392.7m).

The European debt manager said the European BSL CLO vehicle was upsized to €459m from an initial target of €400m following strong investor demand.

The CLO is pricing its AAA tranche at a spread of +129bp, the manager said, with no arranger participation in the tranche.

“This upsized transaction is evidence of the strong appetite from investors for European CLOs and their confidence in our ability to develop an attractive product in a growing market,” said Michael Htun, head of CLOs and structured Credit at Kartesia. “We believe strong credit selection will be the primary driver of outperformance at this stage in the cycle.”

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The firm’s first CLO follows the launch of its Kartesia Loan Management (KLM) strategy in May this year.

Since its launch, the KLM strategy has raised more than €140m in equity capital, the manager said. The strategy is led by Htun and backed by New York Life Investment Management and Candriam, which earlier this year announced they were increasing their stake in Kartesia from 33 per cent to 80 per cent.

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“The pricing of this first CLO is an important step for the KLM strategy and Kartesia as a whole, as it establishes itself as a leading provider of structured financing solutions within European credit and a vital part of the continued growth of the Kartesia platform,” said Julien Rigon, partner at Kartesia.

“We are grateful for the support of our longstanding investors, as well as our partners New York Life and Candriam, as we continue to develop our range of market-leading European credit strategies.”

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